How to empty a sheet with 8000 rows

LudoWipple · 05/17/23

Hello,

We have a big excel file that we need to auto update on smartsheet. For that, I use the node js API and it's working well.

I run this each night. At one moment, it can't run because the sheet is full ( max row is reached ) so I need to empty the sheet before sending new data.

I need to keep the same ID of sheet, so I can't just delete it and create a new. Or deplace row to another sheet, because at one moment the "trash" sheet will be full too. I really need to empty the sheet like you do in the web interface by selecting all, right click and delete.

I tryed to use https://smartsheet.redoc.ly/tag/rows#operation/delete-rows but it don't work because there is too much rows and I get a timeout, or it's a very long action ( more than 2 hours ) and fail at one moment. I searched for third party app like Zapier but no one can empty a sheet.

So my question is, is there a way to empty a sheet ?

Thanks,

Andrée Starå · 05/17/23

Hi @LudoWipple

I hope you're well and safe!

Have you explored using the Premium App, Data Shuttle?

Is that an option?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Paul Newcome · 05/17/23

What if you broke it down to run the delete rows portion on only 500 rows at a time over and over again until the sheet was empty?

LudoWipple · 05/17/23

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/376171#Comment_376171

The

https://smartsheet.redoc.ly/tag/rows#operation/delete-rows

Can be used by max batch of 500 ? I couldn't do it like that. I could do it line by line but it's way too long.

Do you have a simple example in node.js that can help me ?

Thanks

Danielle Wilson · 05/23/23

@LudoWipple I agree Data Shuttle would be the simplest way to both load in the data from another source and to clear out your sheet at the same time (it could just totally replace everything in the sheet).

As another option if you're looking to not wipe out all the data every day but instead to keep a full record base, you could look into DataTable as this is designed to handle larger datasets than sheets.

How to empty a sheet with 8000 rows

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